UPDATE AUGUST 2018. After Petco Foundation reached out to SOAR and told them that Petco and the Petco Foundation do not support the practice of declawing unless it is a medical necessity, SOAR took down all the declawing info from their website and social media pages. #Progress
October 2016
I reached out to this Starting Over Animal Rescue in PA. to see if I could inspire them to be like most rescues in America who counsel cat owners about the humane alternatives and educate them on what declawing is and how it harms all cats.
It’s just another example of how I reached out to these people in a respectful and private way, and they turn things around and play the victim to take the focus off this important cause and all the cats that are suffering.
Here is the original post on facebook that many of you sent me and took a screenshot of.
Here is the note that my mom sent out to the two emails that are listed on the StartingOverAnimalRescue.org page.
Hi Gloria,
I’m the mom of City the Kitty who is a spokescat to end declawing.
I was made aware of your Starting Over Animal rescue by some of City the Kitty’s supporters and how you promote and suggest declawing and say to cat owners that there are no negative consequences to declawing a cat. I was informed that you encourage declawing to protect furniture and homes and give personal examples of why you declaw all your cats.
Is there any reason why you don’t counsel cat owners about using scratchers, soft paws, deterrents and the humane alternatives to this inhumane and mutilating procedure?
Most rescues in America do not allow their cats to be declawed and counsel cat owners about why declawing is very harmful, cruel, and inhumane for any cat.
Do you need advice on how to be a humane rescue and not promote and allow declawing for all your cats? I’m happy to put you in contact with rescues who are humane and don’t allow the public to amputate any of their cat’s toe bones and claws.
In the age of the internet, there are many stories online that will help educate you about this mutilating procedure and make you aware why it is banned or considered unethical in most of the rest of the world.
I have a lot of information on citythekitty.com that can help you. https://citythekitty.org/helpful-advice-for-scratching-issues-and-declawing-facts/
If you really care about cats then you would not encourage and promote such a barbaric and unnecessary amputation procedure.
Thank you
Lori and City the Kitty
Here is a story you might want to read that will bring you up to speed with the modern world on this antiquated and horrific procedure. http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/05/02/what-s-good-for-veterinarians-is-bad-for-cats.html
Email from the board member of SOAR-
Dear Lori,
Isn’t it great how you take the word of others as truth? Perhaps you should have asked before being accusatory.
We at SOAR, DO NOT advertise or promote declawing. Please forward your sources name so I may set him or her straight!
We can make suggestions to adopters who are considering declawing, but sometimes no matter how much you preach, the adopter is going to do what they want to do.
Gloria has been in rescue for over 35 years and doesn’t need any of your advice or resources, or someone telling her how to run the rescue or saying she doesn’t care about cats. You are so, so wrong!
We all have opinions. I personally don’t care for individuals who ‘try’ and shove there opinion and info down throats. So please remove my email address from your list.
Respectfully,
Jen
SOAR Board Member and Kitten Foster
The declaw advertisement was taken out of the facebook post after my email.
So my mom wrote her back…
Hey Jen,
That’s interesting that you say you don’t advertise or promote declawing. That’s how many of City’s supporters saw your post on facebook (and sent me screenshots of it) that you put out to the world about how you offer declawing too. Isn’t that advertising and promoting it by putting it out to your 3563 followers Jen?
I see that you have deleted that comment since I sent you the email. Nice.
Sources spoke with Gloria personally fyi so you might want to run that info by her so that she can enlighten you about the truth and exactly what she said so that you don’t turn things around and play the victim by saying I’m accusing you of something that isn’t true.
The facts that declawing is inhumane, cruel, mutilating and unnecessary aren’t an opinion, it is a fact. You might want to go on the internet and get up to speed about how the modern world and most humane organizations address declawing and the facts about declawing or ask a vet that isn’t making thousands of dollars from this inhumane procedure. Dr Milot is profiting from this inhumane procedure so I’m sure she isn’t going to suggest you guys take the humane approach to scratching issues with cats or inform your cat adopters the facts about how declawing harms and mutilates all cats.
I’m respectfully reaching out to the person in charge of this rescue which is Gloria so please forward my email to her or give me her email. Your email is listed on the website along with another one.
I’m not asking for your opinion on this.
I thought since Gloria’s rescue is all about helping animals, I would ask her these questions and also try to inspire her to realize that she still can get cats adopted and inform cat owners about the truth of declawing and how it harms all cats that have it done to them. Most rescues don’t allow declawing and they don’t suggest, promote, or lie about how it isn’t harmful or inhumane to do to a cat.
So respectfully reaching out to someone about a serious issue of animal abuse and a mutilating procedure is considered “shoving it down someone’s throat?”
Please forward my email to Gloria so that she can be given the chance to answer my email.
Thanks,
Lori
Then the declaw advertisement was inserted back into the post and the owner of SOAR also sent me an email.
Lori,
I did forward to Gloria and she said she really doesn’t care what you think and that I should ignore you…consider it done!
I believe she is emailing you too.
Jen
Lori,
Why don’t you call Forgotten Felines and Fidos at 610-760-9009 or look them up on facebook they declaw 20-25 cats a week and they have been doing it for 2 decades. Also another rescue group Peaceable Kingdom declaw cats as well.
I don’t sit on the pulpit and say declaw but some people request this procedure we provide it we use pain management meds and never had any problems with declawing any cats. You are entitled to your opinion and I respect that .
Gloria
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UPDATE JANUARY 2019- FORGOTTEN FELINES AND FIDOS and PEACEABLE KINGDOM HAVE STOPPED PERFORMING AND ALLOWING DECLAWING.
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IN 2016 PEACEABLE KINGDOM STILL ALLOWED THEIR KITTIES TO BE DECLAWED AND EVEN OFFERED IT AT THEIR SHELTER’S VETERINARY CLINIC. 
HERE’S A SCREENSHOT OF THEIR WEBSITE IN JAN. 2019 WHERE THEY NO LONGER LIST DECLAWING AS A SERVICE. #KNOWBETTERDOBETTER
SOAR IS STILL ADVERTISING THEIR DECLAW PRICES ON A PINNED POST ON THEIR FACEBOOK PAGE. 
As a follow up my FBI (Feline Bureau of Investigation) reached out to the vet, Dr Lori Milot at Rush Veterinary Center in Tamaqua, Pennsylvania in October 2016, that does all the declaws for SOAR. My researchers also spoke with her staff in October 2016 and October 2017, asking as a first time cat owner if declawing is ok for a cat and how it is done, etc. Nothing has changed and they are still declawing cats all the time at this vet practice.
This practice doesn’t counsel cat owners on the negative effects of declawing when they ask on the phone about it, and her staff says that she’s done hundreds and hundreds of declaws and even 5 a day sometimes. Her staff says that they have very few complications in your method of using a special pair of scissors (nice way to say a guillotine clipper) and her vet tech reassures cat owners that she does a quick little snip amputating off the first digit and scoop out the little piece that is left after that so that prevents the nail from regrowing. She said that her vet does it “properly” by scooping out that little piece.
When cat owners asked her staff if cats need their toe bones and claws, they say no, that cats can do the same exercise and movement and defend themselves with the back claws and that there are no negative consequences to declawing. Her experienced vet tech of 20 yrs even tries to convince first time cat owners that declawing a cat for the welfare of their furniture by talking about how she declaws her own cats and they are fine and how she is going to get her 25 lb cat to lose weight and will probably declaw him because he is “going after her furniture pretty good.”
My mom also respectfully reached out to this AVMA vet, Dr Lori Milot in an email in Oct. 2016 but never received an answer back.
Once again my researchers reached out to this vet practice a year later in Oct. 2017 and the only thing that has changed is they say that this vet uses a scalpel to declaw the cats. They say that she did two declaws the day that they called and has two scheduled next week and that Dr Milot does them, “all the time.” When a researcher said they were a first time cat owner and what did they suggest along with a spay surgery. The employee asked if the cat will be an indoor cat and the researcher said yes. The employee said that some people do a declaw and you can do that. The researcher also asked if a declaw is ok since they read some bad things online about how declawing is harmful to a cat and the employee said, “Depends on who does it.” They said that the younger the better and that she had all her cats declawed and they are fine. They said it takes a couple weeks to heal and they will be, “a little sore’ but that they just have to, “get used to it.”
They are one of the many declawing vets that sells, recommends, and provides Purina’s Yesterday’s News Cat litter for their declawed cats. Please sign my petition to Purina that is in this story. Purina makes millions of dollars each year from declawing. [button href=”https://citythekitty.org/purina-pro-declaw-veterinarians-have-a-mutually-beneficial-relationship/” color=”red” newwindow=”yes”] Purina profits from declawing[/button]
I wonder how many of these hundreds of declawed cats, that are sitting in rescues and shelters near this Starting Over Animal Rescue, came from SOAR and were declawed by SOAR’s veterinarian Dr Milot?
You can go to petfinder and search “declawed cats” and see over 100 within a short driving distance of SOAR. 